The rise and fall of Trade Bank: A tale of the sleazy 90s

Trade Bank depositors queue for a refund of their deposits at the bank's valley road offices in Nairobi in April 1994. [File, Standard]

Integrity Centre, the home of Kenya’s anti-graft czar on Valley Road, once housed a banking empire that spectacularly collapsed in the early 1990s.

Trade Bank had established itself as one of the most innovative and visionary local financial institutions.  

It is where titans such as Equity Group boss James Mwangi, who now oversees an over Sh1 trillion asset-rich bank, cut their teeth.